It was about 5:20 in the morning when the West Coast began waking up to learn the natural order of things had been restored.
The Bad Guys won. The Little Guys came up small. The giants had triumphed again, which meant the Giants had failed once more.
Aaron Judge was returning to the Yankees on a nine-year, $360 million pact, the type of contract that only some teams are willing to pay and only some apparently can successfully dish out.
The San Francisco Giants have been here before. In Dec. 2014, they were reportedly the highest bidders on Jon Lester, who chose the Cubs instead. The Giants believed they were on the verge of landing Zack Greinke a year later, when the Diamondbacks added a sixth year to an offer that won the ace. Before the 2018 season, the Giants were a finalist for Shohei Ohtani, who wound up 400 miles south in Anaheim. They tried to pivot to Giancarlo Stanton, but the then-Marlins star used his no-trade clause to block his path to the Bay. An offseason later, it was Bryce Harper ignoring the Giants’ hundreds of millions of dollars and signing with the Phillies instead.
“I’d say the majority of fans are very frustrated by the organization at the moment,” Jake Montero, the director of digital at KNBR — essentially the WFAN of the Bay Area — said Wednesday. “This is now the third or fourth time that a team with allegedly unlimited resources has gone after the biggest fish in free agency and come up short.”
A smaller market is angry, and the Yankees’ Death Star is fully operational once again. Judge is back, having appeared to use a few other teams to wring every dollar (and year) out of the Yankees, who once more acted like the Yankees: When they have wanted a player, they typically have landed that player.
Typically, though, the Yankees have coaxed that player with a wallet that has been unmatched around the game. This time, they may have been outbid. The Yankees believed the Padres — with whom Judge met Tuesday — would go to 10 years and $400 million, according to The Post’s Joel Sherman. They thought the Giants would match any offer, president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi hoping Judge, who grew up in Northern California, would follow his heart back home.
The Yankees won the player if not the dollar-for-dollar bidding. Yankees fans will show their appreciation for the team and the player beginning March 30, when the season begins in The Bronx against these same Giants.
When the Giants return home, how many will be waiting for them?
Last season — one year removed from a remarkable run to 107 wins and with no COVID restrictions — the Giants drew about 225,000 fewer fans than they had in 2019, when they were terrible. The problem in getting fans to a beautiful ballpark has been steadily increasing, and in 10 years, the Giants have gone from averaging 41,696 at a home game (in 2012) to 30,650 (in 2022). In recent years, they have lacked star power, though not because they have not offered enough contracts to stars.
“Fans showed their frustration last year by not coming to the park,” Montero said. “I think that will continue this year unless the team can land somebody big like [Carlos] Correa.”
But would Correa — a legitimate star in his own right — solve the problem? The Herculean Judge, who is a can’t-miss at-bat every time he steps into the batter’s box, might be the most marketable star in the game (or at least second to Ohtani).
Judge was the Giants’ clearest path to relevance, and the Yankees — as they so often have done — propped up a roadblock.
It was good for Judge, who, in the end, showed he valued his legacy as an all-time Yankee over the potential comforts of playing nearby his family (and received an all-time payday in doing so). It was good for the Yankees, who might have regrets in seven or eight years, but locked up a major contributor they simply had to have. It was good for Major League Baseball, which will continue to have the literal biggest star in the biggest market in a sport that has a big problem selling its stars. In all likelihood, Judge will be a Yankee for life.
“I hope Judge stays just for the sake of the game,” Anthony Rizzo said last month, “because you see a lot of franchise icons not getting what they deserve [from] the team that they have done so much for.”
The Yankees did what they had to do and sailed to the projected second-highest payroll in the sport, according to Spotrac, only trailing the Mets. Both New York teams still have more work to do.
In an era of luxury-tax penalties and great wealth throughout the game, there are plenty of reasons for other markets to look at New York in anger.
After Judge’s decision, order has appropriately been restored.
Today’s back page
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Stop and Lugo
Seth Lugo returning to the Mets probably was not going to happen anyway, but Wednesday’s trade — in which GM Billy Eppler landed Brooks Raley, a lefty from the Rays — represented one more sign Lugo’s time with the only franchise he has known has finished.
Lugo, who did some of everything for the Mets during his seven seasons, became the team’s unconventional best option against lefty hitters last season. The Mets’ bullpen either lacked a reliable lefty or a southpaw altogether for much of the season, and the righty Lugo limited lefty batters to a .167 average.
Raley, who, like Lugo, can be used for multiple innings, could slot into a similar role. He has been dominant against lefties, who have batted .170 against him. The Mets dealt minor league lefty Keyshawn Askew to Tampa Bay in exchange for the 34-year-old.
Lugo, who often has stated he would prefer to be in a rotation, is reportedly receiving strong interest on the free-agent market as a starter, and the Mets have shown no signs they value him as one.
If this is indeed the end, Lugo — always good but rarely great and often overlooked — would have ended his tenure as 15th all-time in pitching appearances with the Mets, with 275 — ahead of legends such as Ron Darling (257) and Sid Fernandez (255), narrowly behind Turk Wendell (285) and Roger McDowell (280).
Sweet sweep revenge
Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and Ben Simmons were not united for games like Wednesday’s, when Durant and Irving led the Nets to an unnecessarily stressful 122-116 win over the Hornets.
They are here to win championships, which right now means they are here to beat the Celtics.
Their latest failed attempt — a 103-92 loss at Barclays Center on Sunday — featured many of the same issues that popped up in last season’s playoffs, when the Celtics swept the first-round series. The Celtics were taller and longer, clogging up the driving and passing lanes. Boston swarmed Durant in the fourth quarter with a series of double teams, and the Nets could not adjust quickly enough, the ball movement lacking.
Can Simmons solve the issues?
A healthy and rolling Simmons would be the best option the Nets have of limiting Jayson Tatum, who went off for 29 points. When Durant is being harassed, Simmons — when right — has the capability of getting to the rim and either finishing or leaving a lob for a big such as Nic Claxton.
Simmons, who is targeting Friday against the Hawks for his return from his calf strain, acknowledged missing a showdown against Boston hurt a little bit more.
“We got three more games against them,” Simmons said Tuesday at practice. “I look forward to those games.”
The next face-off will be Jan. 12, when the Nets will get another look at how this core can compare with the NBA’s best.